Despite capital inflow into “smart-beta” exchange traded
funds (EFT) hitting a record high globally, take-up for the new breed of EFTs –
which track every conceivable segment of the market – by Chinese investors remains
cool.

Cash flow statements and debt refinancing plans of O&M
(offshore and marine) counters have come under intense scrutiny, as analysts
and stakeholders attempt to distinguish players more at risk than others.

I was shopping for fruit at a Bangkok supermarket, feeling
rather perplexed. There I was, a Singaporean earning a salary that was easily
many times that of the average Thai. But I was reluctant to spend. The items on
offer were even more expensive than Singapore prices: normal-looking small apples
at S$1 each, withered navel oranges going for S$2, and bags of grapes going for
S$15.

After US multi-level marketing company Herbalife settled a
probe of its sales practices with the US Federal Trade Commission last month,
top executives assured investors that the company would be able to thrive under
the new rules.

When a team of hackers discovered that St Jude Medical Inc's
pacemakers and defibrillators had security vulnerabilities that could put lives
at risk, they didn't warn St Jude. Instead, the hackers, who work for
cybersecurity startup MedSec, e-mailed Carson Block, who runs the Muddy Waters
Capital LLC investment firm, in May. They had a money-making proposal.

After suffering through a 953 per cent rally in shares of
Yirendai Ltd since mid-February, hedge funds and other bearish speculators were
rewarded over the past four days as the Chinese peer-to-peer lender sank 35 per
cent in US trading. Holding on to the trade has been especially costly after
annualised borrowing rates for Yirendai shares jumped to about 40 per cent, the
highest level among big Chinese companies tracked by IHS Markit Ltd.

In the first "front running" case being prosecuted
for insider trading here, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) slapped
more than 300 charges on two dealers from First State Investments Singapore
(FSI) and a remisier with UOB Kay Hian for alleged offences involving counters
listed in Singapore and abroad.

Bankrupt former IPCO International CEO Quah Su-Ling and
LionGold Corp’s director of business and corporate development Peter Chen are
among eight parties that have been ordered to pay $17.488 million to the defendants
in a lawsuit initiated four years ago. And, the details of the legal tangle,
which has not been widely discussed, provide an interesting backstory to the
penny stock crash of October 2013 that sparked Singapore’s biggest securities
fraud investigation.

ISR Capital declined to reveal the identity of the
subscriber of debt securities recently issued by one of its subsidiaries, and
did not specifically state the names of the individuals and companies related
to its overdue trade receivables $2.382 million as at June 30, despite being
asked to do so by the Singapore Exchange.

Short-sellers who made their names and fortunes wiping
billions off Chinese and Southeast Asian companies are setting their sights on
Japan after a series of accounting scandals amplified concerns about weak
corporate governance there.

Tired of spending hours at her Beijing bank discussing her
finances and a myriad of investment options with her account manager, Lauren Ma
turned to Lingji, a phone app that pre-selects a range of assets and trades for
her automatically.

ISR Capital has revealed that it is taking advice on a major
acquisition from a corporate advisor whose partner is also a director of the
vendor in the deal, according to the company's replies to queries from the
Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Singapore Medical Group (SMG) on Thursday rose as much as
two cents or 7.4 per cent to S$0.29 in early trading, after RHB initiated
coverage on the specialist healthcare provider with a "buy" rating
and a target price of S$0.45.

Shares in Noble Group continued to fall on Wednesday in
heavy trading as investors sold the rights shares ahead of their listing on
Thursday and as more traders jumped on the selling bandwagon amid the plunge.

Homegrown startups are making a name for themselves. On
Monday, crowdfunding platform Crowdo reported that it has received the coveted
full licence to conduct securities crowdfunding here, while tech media platform
e27 announced that it has raised S$3 million in Series A funding.

Plenty of people are asking when the Government will reduce
or remove the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, but perhaps the real question is
whether it will do so at all, given recent comments that suggest the slew of
stamp duties and taxes on property may be here to stay

When the possibility of having a listed regulator was first
raised as a suitable model for the local stock market in the late 1990s, not
only was it novel - it appeared to have plenty of appeal. After all, not only
had other markets adopted it, but who better to police the universe of listed
entities than one of its own?

The swift turn of events and the company's clarification
announcements suggest that there might not have been adequate deliberation by
the board of directors on its courses of action and the implications of its
decisions.